David Hardin

Royal Oak MI

Study in Green 1

Painting

Artist Statement

The only fictional characters worth reading about or watching are flawed, imperfect. The most compelling of them are studies in contradiction. They struggle to transcend their worst impulses and strive for decency. We inhabit their lives, alert to clues about our own. We long for redemption, for them and for ourselves.
Visual images of people can be just as compelling. I'm fascinated by the figurative work of Van Gogh, Freud, Bellows, Henri, Sargent and Whistler.
I paint real people as imagined characters. It allows me to explore the thin veil of appearance that conceals us all. The most interesting surfaces are those misshapen by the turbulence and ambiguities that lie underneath. By painting people as fictional characters, I'm looking for redemption,transcendence and the revelation of unexpected beauty.